And now we have the apparent arrival of gender ideology into the mix. I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I predict that even this will be blamed on the conservatives and the traditionalists because they were intransigent and not loving enough to the first iteration of Revoice. But whatever the exculpatory rhetoric used, one thing is now clear: to stay with Revoice is not merely to legitimate more than subtle distinctions about sexual identity. In truth, it is to lend support to the anthropological chaos currently gripping American society.
In the days after the Nashville Statement was launched in 2017, several friends contacted me to ask why I had not signed it. I had a number of reasons for not doing so, none of which had anything to do with having changed my position on the issues the statement addressed.
As a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, I subscribe by vow to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. I have yet to come across a contemporary moral issue that cannot be addressed using the positive teaching contained therein. Thus, some years earlier I declined to sign a statement against child abuse, not on the grounds that I am actually in favor of such abuse, of course, but simply because I already affirm via the Westminster Standards an ethical position which by implication makes my position on the matter clear.
That reason for me not signing Nashville still holds, though that should not be read as a criticism of anyone whose conscience led them to do so. I am also a believer in Christian freedom on such issues.
Another reason for not signing, however, no longer applies. That was my concern in 2017 that the dialogue with those now dubbed “Side B” would be prematurely foreclosed by such a document. “Side B” activists identify as LGBTQ in orientation but say they are committed to refrain from sexual sin through LGBTQ behaviors.” “Side A” in this scheme refers to those who claim a sexual orientation as LGBTQ and also engage in LGBTQ sexual relationships and behaviors.
